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Interested in anime? The UM-Flint Anime Club holds meetings every Monday in Room 111 of French Hall from 6 to 9:45 p.m., dependent upon scheduling access to that facility. Members provide anime shows to watch at meetings, discuss them, and simply spend time together and befriend each other over the common interest.

“If I had to pick what makes anime special it would be the love of the entertainment that is wide spread by not just our members, but everyone that watches it,” said Club President Chase Pasicznyk, a UM-Flint junior majoring in business management. “There are references and quotes that everyone loves to use in everyday conversation that would seem like weird jokes that only people like us would get.

“Anime, in general, also tends to attract people to a fantasy that fans use as a form of escapism, that almost everyone else can either understand or relate to, because mentally, we understand how each other’s brains work. All of us go through the same stress/hardships and we use anime as a similar same escape strategy in order to feel better about ourselves. Because of this, I feel that the Anime Club, and anime in general, helps to create a closer and more understanding community.”

Anime is a Japanese school of computer or hand-drawn animation that features futuristic settings, violence, sexuality, and is colorfully stylized. The genre is different than American cartoons in the greater complexity of story line and character backgrounds. It also has longer, serial stories that may be spread over a number of episodes.

“What makes anime so special for many reasons stems from the cultural, artistic, and age-based marketing point of view,” said Pasicznyk. “The two major things that sets anime apart from cartoons is that it isn’t made in America, it’s made in Japan, and anime (by in large) is marketed to an audience of people ages (typically) 13 years old and greater.

“This means that censorship laws are different, settings for shows are typically in Japan (if the show is based in the real world) which leads to an introduction to a different culture which helps to broaden one’s horizons. The viewer gets to see an animated show that is marketed for adults that isn’t hindered by the stigma that cartoons are for children or that the only cartoons that adults can watch are comedies (such as Archer, Brickleberry, or the Simpsons).”

So, if you enjoy watching anime or what to learn more about it, check out the club. For further information, contact the club via the MGagement Page on the UM-Flint website.